Doom metal act Daylight Dies get their gloom on with DISMANTLING DEVOTION, the band’s latest eight-track endeavor. Well-measured yet merciless, tracks “A Life Less Lived” runs eight minutes and never gets dull, as the band’s mid-tempo mauling is accentuated by meticulous fretwork, while the hypnotic trance that “Solitary Refinement” lulls into is enriched by dreamy vocals and prog-rock flare, all while keeping the beat as melancholic as humanly possible. Ushering a deliberately somber tone that borders on the foreboding nature reserved for bands like Opeth, tracks like the pristinely depressing “All We Had” and the title track (an instrumental with an astonishing guitar tone) should come equipped with a warning label and a few Prozac. Making mope metal intriguing is where this North Carolina troupe ultimately succeeds, placing themselves amongst Paradise Lost, Katatonia, and Anathema as torchbearers of the downtrodden metal contingent. www.candlelightrecordsusa.com
- Mike SOS